Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 11:46:20 EST
From: Larry Horn
Subject: Re: knife & fork
If anyone is still hanging on to the impression that fewer-syllables-before-
more-syllables is the major principle determining order of nominals in fixed
binomials/freezes, here are a few examples where the phonological tendency is
overridden by one or more semantic factors [most from Cooper & Ross 1975]
happy or sad
fathers and sons
parent and child
singular and plural
monolingual or bilingual
heaven and hell
predator and prey
living/alive or dead
peanut butter and jelly
As for bacon and eggs, there is indeed a meat-first tendency, operative also in
my aforementioned burger and fries (hot dog and roll, etc.), which is in fact
strong enough to account for Campbell's pork and beans, one that always puzzled
me because the only "pork" anyone could find therein was that little slab of
fat. (I suppose "pork fat and beans" would have sounded less appetizing.)
Cooper and Ross also point to "surf and turf", "fish or fowl", and "fish or
game" to suggest that while meat precedes almost every-
thing else, it's outranked by fish.
Larry